Over the last couple of decades, the world population has become increasingly aware of the threat of global warming, and the impact it may have on our planet. In response to this awareness, individuals have become more conscious of their personal “carbon footprint,” and have looked for ways to minimize their individual negative effects on the environment. It has been well established that these effects can be reduced by decreasing carbon-based energy or power consumption associated with, for example, transportation, industry, and also the occupation and usage of various buildings and residences.
Multi-unit buildings, such as hotels, motels, inns, dormitories, offices, etc., typically require significant carbon-based energy consumption in order to provide for the needs of their occupants. This energy consumption is associated primarily with heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (herein, “HVAC”), lighting, and other appliance operation (e.g., television, computers, etc.). In these multi-unit buildings it can be difficult for management to set building-wide reduced energy consumption parameters for the HVAC and/or various appliances because not all of the building occupants may find comfort and/or convenience at such settings.
Some multi-unit buildings, particularly in the lodging industry, provide an occupant accessible thermostat in each of the rooms of the building. Some of these thermostats include controls by which the occupant may adjust HVAC operation to attain a desired room temperature. However, without prior knowledge of the specifications of the particular multi-unit building, it is not possible for the occupant to set the thermostat to maximize energy conservation in the room. Moreover, these existing thermostats do not typically provide for adjustment or regulation of other in-room energy consuming appliances such as lighting, etc. Thus, convenient in-room occupant controlled energy conservation within a multi-unit building is not possible.
Accordingly, a temperature/appliance management system capable of allowing an individual occupant of a multi-unit building to conveniently set and maintain room conditions at a level that is both comfortable and minimally consumptive of power would be desirable.